How racist were we ? (In the 70s)


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We all know it's not right and not something I'd do but are people genuinely offended by this when they hear it? Im probably about as offended as a black man would be if he heard someone of his race abusing a white bloke.
More pissed off and disappointed than offended.
 
If you take a football crowd as a demographic of society, then a crowd of 40,000 people is going to contain a lot of people with racist views. When that racism manifests itself as racial chanting which it often did in the 70s/80s it makes for uncomfortable listening. It certainly was endemic back then, not just the chants but the NF selling their magazine outside grounds, the banana throwing, even Nazi salutes (think that was particularly a Chelsea thing if I remember). Thankfully we've moved on but it is far from eradicated totally.
 
Remember the whole ground singing 'I'd rather be a Paki than a mag' at the SOL in the 00's, also remember 'your just a town full of Paki's' at Bradford away in the 90's.

Not so much recently, saying that last week when Wes Morgan was chasing down PVA last week the bloke in the SWC was venting and you could clearly tell he was desperate to call him a black bastard but took all his will power to refrain. Funny as owt.

The whole ground :lol::lol::lol:
 
A few black former players were discussing racism on 5live recently, and while they said the London clubs were the worst, we also got a mention as being bad

Were we particularly bad?

I started in the 80s and everyone still called Gary Bennett midnight :oops:

When Benno scored on debut v Mackemenemy's Saints the Fulwell started singing for Howard Gayle. our other black debutant that day....:oops:

Mind you, a few years earlier they sang about ' being on the march with Maggie's army'....as pits were being closed and the whole of the north east being turned into an Oxfam shop...:oops:

Into the 90s and the stench of racism was still in the air with far too many opposition black players being treated despicably....and of course Sunderland proudly voted Brexit before anyone else...nowt to do with race though....:(

Well im probably about as pissed off and disappointed as a black person appears to be when a member of their race has a go at a white person.

We're all one race aren't we? Human.
 
When Benno scored on debut v Mackemenemy's Saints the Fulwell started singing for Howard Gayle. our other black debutant that day....:oops:

Mind you, a few years earlier they sang about ' being on the march with Maggie's army'....as pits were being closed and the whole of the north east being turned into an Oxfam shop...:oops:

Into the 90s and the stench of racism was still in the air with far too many opposition black players being treated despicably....and of course Sunderland proudly voted Brexit before anyone else...nowt to do with race though....:(



We're all one race aren't we? Human.
Well that's how I would prefer to see it but with all these rules and regulations separating us it's diffcult to look at it that way.
 
When Benno scored on debut v Mackemenemy's Saints the Fulwell started singing for Howard Gayle. our other black debutant that day....:oops:

Mind you, a few years earlier they sang about ' being on the march with Maggie's army'....as pits were being closed and the whole of the north east being turned into an Oxfam shop...:oops:

Into the 90s and the stench of racism was still in the air with far too many opposition black players being treated despicably....and of course Sunderland proudly voted Brexit before anyone else...nowt to do with race though....:(
Urby Emmanuelson was applauded on to the pitch at SOL a few years ago because people thought it was Keiran Richardson. Nowt to do with racism, mind, just a simple mistake.
 
My stepfather told me roly Gregoire was captured in a net in the jungle and shipped to Sunderland, no really
He told me that as well outside Roker Methodist as a kid and I believed it. Then I found out he was from Halifax or somewhere!

My dad used to say we sung about being all white and proud?
Can never remember that mind during 70s or 80s

I remember as a kid in the Fulwell end, the masses were serenading an opposition black player with

He's a w@& a w@&, it's plain to see to see
He's blacker than you and me
He's a w@&, a w@&

There was a black fella stood just in front of us, he pulled his Parker hood over his head and said to his mate "nothing to do with me"

I remember thinking how horrible it most of been for him. Looking back, it's incredible how blatantly racist it was at football
And

It's a dog a dog v Liverpool 2-4 Elliott and Cummins when the mongrel ran on the pitch
 
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we were the first team to play 3 black players n the first division in 1972, a full 6 years before West Brom (so not sure why they built that statue)

However by the time I started going the NF had a bit of a claw hold, but as Cass Pennant recounts in his book, they were seen off by the ICF
 
Jan '96 and it wasn't racist; it was because of his former club.

I remember travelling to Bradford and Leicester in the 80s and our following singing 'Leicester's/Bradford's full of pakis'. Nobody thought they were doing anything wrong. Obviously, in hindsight...
It's true.
 
He told me that as well outside Roker Methodist as a kid and I believed it. Then I found out he was from Halifax or somewhere!


Can never remember that mind during 70s or 80s


And

It's a dog a dog v Liverpool 2-4 Elliott and Cummins when the mongrel ran on the pitch
Haha, I'd forgot that - classic moment that was. If it's the game I'm thinking of we got our two goals late on, and frankly we could of lost 10-0. Dalglish master class iirc
 
It was pretty bad, but not very much out of the ordinary for the time. One of the problems was that there were, at that time, very few black people living in the the North East, so it was a product of lack of experience of living and working with minorities, on top of the prevailing lack of awareness of racial issues.

So pretty much the same as today where people up here think they've been overrun with Eastern Europeans and/or Muslims but in reality there's not very many at all.

Still be racist shit going on at grounds around the country I'd imagine.
 
A true story about Gary Bennett.

He lived in New Herrington in the 80s, the metropolitan and multicultural centre of pitmatic culture. There are some 'new' houses near St. Aidan's Church and I think that he lived there.

Anyhow a wifey was walking her dog one balmy evening and was shouting for it to return when she bumped into Mr. Bennett.

Luckily he saw the funny side that the dog was called 'Blackie'.
 
Not good, but mostly it was ignorance rather than racism. The maggots where why worse, the new years day abuse at Bennett and Gayle was digusting


I might have known we would be worse just because of the perceived classyness of SAFC bullshit. I grew up watching football in the 70s and 80s and I can say we were both as bad as each other simply due to ignorance and the North East not being a cosmopolitan area at all. Ours dissipated with us signing more and more black players, but it's a well known fact that when Peter Reid was there SAFC had a racial element inside the club no black players hardly. Whether that was Reid is yet to be known. You still get the racist idiots at both clubs too just look at that idiot who abused Lukaku or the clowns who abused Darren Bents mum
 
I can remember some blokes behind me at the '92 semi final at Hillsborough, saying in broad South Tyneside accents, "let the darkie oot his cage" as Gary Bennett was warming up. My mate, who I was standing next to mentioned it not so long ago.
Even then, it was fairly out of the ordinary to hear, as it really seemed to change in the 90s.

Well thats bullshit as no one i know in South Tyneside says "oot"
 
My only experience with it was on a bus to West Brom a couple of seasons ago, 2 different Ameobi songs. All (3) of our league goalscorers this season are black so wonder how they cope with that.
 
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